Using Eudora 4.3 to Access your UNET E-mail

UNET offers several kinds of accounts to the University System Community: remote access, e-mail and mainframe (CMS) accounts. E-mail accounts give the owner an "inbox" on our IMAP e-mail server, mail.maine.edu. Incoming mail can be read by using an e-mail program such as Eudora. In this document we describe how to set up Eudora to work with our IMAP accounts. The screen shots were made on Windows 98. The images should be almost identical to what you would see using Eudora on a Macintosh.

This is not intended to be a complete manual for Eudora. For more information on Eudora, please refer to the Help material available from Eudora's Help menu or go to the Eudora web site.

Configuring Eudora to do IMAP E-mail

Before you can do mail with Eudora, you must configure it. Go to the Tools menu, pull it down and select "Options" (on a Macintosh, pull down the Special menu and select "Settings"). You will see a window that looks like the following:
options window

Then select "Getting Started." Type in your real name, your e-mail address as the return address, mail.maine.edu as the mail server, the first part of your e-mail address as your login name, and maine.edu as the SMTP server (see image above for an example).

Now in the same options window, click the "Incoming Mail" icon. Change the server type to IMAP:

specifying the IMAP server

You can choose how Eudora should handle letters that you delete. You can either mark them as deleted, but leave them in the standard inbox for later purging, or you can have Eudora move them from your inbox to a separate mailbox. Initially on the IMAP server you don't have any mailboxes other than your inbox. However you can create additional mailboxes (for example, one called Trash) using this options window or the Mailboxes menu.

If you want Eudora to automatically move deleted letters to a mailbox called Trash on the IMAP server, click the "Move it to" round button (see above image), and pull down the little menu where it says "trash" (see above image).

Selecting "Inbox" pops a menu to the side with a "New" choice that lets you create a mailbox on the IMAP server with any name you like. In the image below, someone has used this feature to create several mailboxes called "Trash", "Family", etc. Once you have created a mailbox to hold your deleted letters, you can use this little menu to select that mailbox.

creating mailboxes

Moving deleted letters to a mailbox does not actually remove them from the IMAP server. They stay in the mailbox until you open that mailbox and tell it to delete the letters.

open trash mailbox

final delete

Using Eudora to Read Mail

Once you have configured Eudora you are ready to use it for mail. Run Eudora and enter your password if requested. Eudora will open a window showing on the left the various mailboxes you have on your PC or Mac and on the IMAP server (under "Dominant"). Under "Dominant" click the "Inbox" item. This makes Messenger ask the IMAP server for a list of letters in your IMAP Inbox.

IMAP inbox

To open and read a letter, click on it in the inbox list. You can reply, forward, print or delete this letter either via the "Message" menu or the icons that appear in Eudora's window above the inbox list.

You can also transfer this letter into a mailbox you have created either on the IMAP server using the Mailbox menu, as discussed above (see images for creating a mailbox in the previous section).

As discussed above, deleting a letter does not immediately remove it from the IMAP server. Depending on your options (see first section) it either marks the letter for final deletion or moves it to a mailbox of your choice. To complete the deletion process you must either delete it from your "trash" mailbox or if not using a trash mailbox, you must select "purge messages" from the Message menu. You will want to delete letters off the IMAP server on a regular basis because your account is assigned a limited amount of space (currently 20 megabytes) on the server. If your space is full, new mail coming in will be rejected and "bounced" back to the sender.

[As noted above, your overall Inbox limit is currently 20 megabytes (this may change in the future). However, each incoming letter is limited to not more than 4 megabytes. Even if you have room in your inbox, a letter over 4 megabytes in size will be rejected and "bounced" back to the sender.]

Composing and Sending Mail

To compose a letter, click the "New Message" icon in the Eudora window or use the "New Message" item in the Message menu. This will open a blank letter. Type in the address(es) where you want the letter to go, or select addresses from your Eudora address book (see below). The primary addresses go in the "To" field, addresses of people you want to have copies go in the "CC" and "BCC" fields. The difference between "CC" and "BCC" is that other recipients don't know that persons listed in the "BCC" field will receive copies, whereas everyone can see that the "CC"'d addresses are receiving copies.

Enter a subject line and type in the body of the letter. To send an attached file along with the letter click the "Attach" icon (paper with a paper clip) in the icon bar (or use the "Attach" item in the Message menu) and select the file you want to include. If you want a signature to be automatically inserted at the end of your letter, set up the signature via the Eudora options in the Tools menu (see Eudora's online help for details). Click the "Send" icon to send the letter.

In Eudora's options you can ask it to save copies of your outgoing mail in a mailbox you designate. Note that sending mail doesn't necessarily have anything to do with the IMAP server. IMAP is for incoming mail.

Eudora Address Book

Eudora allows you to store a list of names and e-mail addresses in an "address book." When you want to send mail to someone in your address book, you can click on an entry in the book so you don't have to type in the address each time. You can also use the address book to create short mailing lists - groups of people to whom you want to send the same letters.

If you have a letter open, you can add the sender of the letter to your address book by using the Special menu:

IMAP inbox

You can also create address book entries using the Tools menu.

To use an address book entry or list when composing mail, click the "Address book" item in the Tools menu and make your selection from the address book entries you are shown.


Need help? Phone 581-3524 or send mail to support@maine.edu

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